iPhone 4 and 4S

[Stagpole]

As a loyal VF customer for many, many years, I had to think long and hard about this. I believed i've had a great service from Vodafone in the past but like house, travel or car insurance, you only know how good the cover is when you have to you it!!! I have stayed with VF through the debacule that was the urgrading to the iPhone, then the same with iPad and iPad 2 and now this again with the iPhone 4s. Enough is enough. There comes a time when one realises that after years and tears and loyality to Vodafone that this loyality go only one way.VF show a total disregard for its loyal customers, favouring new costumers and ££££. in conclusion yesterday whilst on my way home from work and passing a Three Mobile Shop, I had my Eureka moment. Enough was Enough, I walked in to the shop and after only 15mins walked out with my brand new White iPhone 4s 64gb. And to boot I got 2000mins 5000text all you can eat wifi and data with personnel hotspot and tethering 5000mins to other Three users all this for £35 on a 24mts contract and £229 for phone upfront. Should have been £279 but a kind sales person gave a discount when I decided to go for a 64gb rather than the 32gb I had asked for, better resell value I'm told.

Very happy with my new iPhone and enjoying becoming aquainted will Siri (wish it was a female voice though lol)

[joshlg92]

Good deals....................Good luck if you ever need to speak to there customer services..........they do not understand English.  Also their signal is rubbish.  I cancelled and paid off my contract 12 months early because of signal problems, in fact no signal anywere except in town.

[Stagpole]

I live in Scotland and 3 give great coverage. I still have contracts with VF and compared coverage today. With VF and in my home I get 1 bar with 3 i'm getting 3 bars. 3 coverage is tagged on to other provider so really good service here.

[chrisdeeming1]

That's great news. Definitely sounds like a wise move for you.

Glad it's all worked out so well.

[Bobdog]

As I said I still have a iPhone and iPad 2 with VF and I am in no hurry to change. I just wanted the iPhone 4s and wasn't prepared to put up with the confusion of not knowing when to expect one. If VF had of said you will get one in 8wks I would have waited. All the conflicting delivery times forced my to lose confidence in VF. That said when the iPhone 4s becomes readily aviable on VF I may consider upgrading my existing iPhone on VF but will probably wait for I phone 5

[mandingo77]

why do you think there is a bag log of orders with vodafone? generally as more people want to be with them.

3 have them for one reason, they are pants, but good luck anyway

[Stagpole]

3 Works for us in Scotland. Best coverage over all. Can't speak for south of the border.

[Stagpole]

For some they are locked into long expensive contracts, for others its better the devil you know. I was swayed by coverage in Scotland and independant reviws voting 3 No 1 in mobile internet 2 years running in UK

[Bobdog]

Im from Scotland also. I took Stagpoles advice and went into a 3 store today. Bought 2 iPhone 4s one for me one for my wife, 32gb White and 64gb Black. No probs at all plenty of stock. Tried them out tonite. Great reception and ultra fast internet. Hopefully no more frequent drop in signal and dropped calls that my wife and I have experienced with vodafone.

[Bobdog]

By the way, thanks Stagpole

Cheers mate

[neildavies2012]

Enjoy the coverage mate, 3 network are ######!

[mitchja]

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mandingo77 wrote:

why do you think there is a bag log of orders with vodafone? generally as more people want to be with them.

Sorry but that is rubbish, every UK network is having stock issues with the iPhone 4S at the moment.

At the end of the day, it's all down to personal preference which network you decide to go with.  Don't be fooled into thinking that as an existing customer, you will get a better deal than someone else.  Networks don't care these days about loyalty at all now.  You are nothing more than an account number to them!!

Having tried Vodafone on SIM only with an iPhone, I certainly wont be coming back as their overall service is the worst I've ever experienced with any of the UK mobile networks. 

[Stagpole]

mitchja

I totally agree with u regarding VF service. Having recently purchased e iPhone 64gb from 3 at a great price on a great contract, I can only say that as far as coverage, (for me at least) and data speed has blown VF out of the water. Since buying the phone I have recieved at least 8 txts from their customer services offering advice and support. They also emailed me a voucher code for £20 to buy accessories for my new iPhone at their online store.

[SimonD-1969]

I'm only upgrading my Iphone4 because the home button barely works which means that it can take 20-30 attempts before an app will close. I'm not the least bit interested in the apparently huge selling point of Siri but the 64GB storage is a plus as I have a lot of music which won't fit onto my 32GB phone.

I was abroad when the phone went on sale but ordered in on 23 October. So far I've had two messages from VF. The first to confirm my order and the second after 10 days to tell me that they'd get back to me within 10 days to give me an update. As VF currently have no stock I can only assume that my next message will be to tell me that there is a further delay. Fortunately VFs system experienced no delays in increasing my monthly bill from £25 to £41!

This just isn't good enough for me and, presuming that this morning's heavy rain subsides, I may take a walk along Oxford Street this morning to see what I can find. My past experience with o2 (I couldn't get a signal indoors) puts them out of the picture but I might take a chance with three.

[Nabs]

I too live in Scotland and three's network is absolute pants, as soon as you even look at leaving town you can forget it with them!
Vodafone have never once let me down when i've been travelling outside town! 

[Stagpole]

Hi Nabs

I didn't say that 3 was perfect in Scotland, I said it gave the best coverage, fastest data download speeds and prices for me. As You know Scotland is very complicated as far as coverage goes, in one area you may get a signal from all providers then five miles down or up the road only one or none will work. The futher north you go the more limited the coverage. Try the Western Isles lol. I live and work in Central and for the most part get a good signal from all providers, but some is better than others. When on the train from Glasgow to Edinburgh my Vodafone signal drops in and out all the time. When travelling from Falkirk to Livingston by bus across West Lothian forget about Vodafone most of the time. Its horses for coarses really, one should go for the provider that has best coverage for where one works, lives and travels. Before committing to a contract one should research the best coverage for there needs, ask friends, search internet. I would recommend that one sould tryout free pay and go sims from each provider (try before you buy) before commiting to a 24mts contract with any provider.

When deciding to purchase an additional phone to my Vodafone phones on 3, I relied on UK reviews, personnal recomendations and using a free sim everyday for a few weeks. Also when I bought my first iPad back in the day, it was unlocked and came with both O2 and 3 pay and go data sims, I tried both and 3 proved to have the fastest and most consistant data speeds. So I stuck with them until I upgraded an existing data plan to iPad 2 with Vodafone.

That being said I was also in fluenced by VF's poor handling of the iPhone 4s issue which was on the back of the iPhone 4, iPad and iPad 2 debacules. VF seemed to have learned nothing from their mistakes in the past. The fact that 3 provide unlimited data, free personnal wifi hotspot and free tethering for my Macbook Air and Macbook Pro whilst on the road, no more dreaded dongle with seperate data plan helped make the decision an easy one.

Finally when I travel in Scotland, from Edinburgh to Loch Rannoch to Inverness I need to take more than one phone with me to ensure I get a signal. At present Vodafone and O2 iphone 4 and now my new iPhone 4 64gb White on 3.

[MalikMohamed]

Three's signal is realy bad i was with them previously before i joined VF, now im having all sorts of problems with my signal in my post code which was fine before on VF. But yh the customer service is the worst ive ever seen, and i do agree that VF should value their existing customers like o2, they gave first dibs on the iphone 4s to existing users which sounds pretty good and they also have in my opinion a better 12 month deal than vodafone. But yh for you that was a wise move.

[SimonD-1969]

I am now an ex-customer of Vodafone and a new customer of Orange. I'd previously had a lot of trouble with o2 so was concerned that the signal with Orange wouldn't be great but I didn't have a problem at work, on the way home or at home. The deciding factor in me actually taking the plunge was that I was assured that I had 7 days to return the phone if there was a signal issue. It's early days but it appears that my fears were unfounded.

Everyone who had ordered a black 4s 64GB has now oved one up the list at VF.

I'd previously had no problems with VF so it's a little sad to go in some ways. Hopefully my new provider will give me a good service.